Artificial intelligence has become an increasingly common topic in hospitality. For years, many of us weren't particularly worried about AI taking over our jobs. After all, while AI can recommend a bottle of wine, someone still needs to taste it, open it, and serve it.
But lately, we're beginning to see how AI is changing our industry, particularly the way guests interact with us.
As hospitality professionals, AI can be incredibly useful. It helps us polish emails, organize files, prepare reports, and simplify administrative work. A good friend of mine who is developing AI tools for restaurants recently asked how AI could help sommeliers. My immediate answer was inventory. Anyone who has managed a wine cellar knows how laborious counting bottles, tracking inventory, and reconciling discrepancies can be. If AI could make those tasks easier, I'd happily welcome it.
However, there's another side of AI that I find a little frustrating.
Recently, a guest asked me for Champagne recommendations. I suggested three bottles at different price points, each for a particular reason. The guest responded with what appeared to be an AI-generated analysis explaining why Option A wasn't a good choice, why Option B was better but somewhat cultish, and why Option C was more expensive than at other restaurants.
What the analysis failed to consider was the context, including the fact that our restaurant operates under a no-tipping model, which affects our pricing structure.
We politely acknowledged the response, but I was honestly a little shocked. Not because the guest questioned my recommendations, but because they seemed more interested in consulting AI than having a conversation with a sommelier.
I asked a few friends, both inside and outside the industry, why guests might prefer AI. Some said they believe sommeliers are always trying to upsell, and there's some truth behind that perception. Others admitted they find sommeliers intimidating and don't want to look foolish asking questions.
Those are valid concerns, and perhaps we, as wine professionals, need to take some responsibility. If guests feel more comfortable asking a machine about wine than speaking to us, maybe we haven't done enough to make wine approachable.
Still, I find it frustrating when guests spend their evening checking wine scores and comparing restaurant prices with retail prices. A restaurant isn't a wine shop. You're not simply paying for the bottle; you're paying for the service, storage, glassware, staffing, and overall experience. That doesn't mean every restaurant markup is justified, but price comparisons without context don't tell the whole story.
And wine scores? A 98-point wine isn't necessarily better for your dinner than a 90-point wine. Taste is subjective, and the right bottle depends on the person drinking it.
What I love about being a sommelier is the conversation. Understanding what guests enjoy, introducing them to something unfamiliar, and occasionally surprising them with a wine they would never have chosen themselves. Sometimes the best recommendation comes from years of tasting, traveling, meeting producers, and learning about wine, not simply comparing scores online.
I'm not against AI. In fact, I think it has enormous potential to improve hospitality, particularly behind the scenes. But I hope we don't reach a point where every recommendation needs to be verified by an algorithm and every experience reduced to a price comparison.
Perhaps the future of sommeliers isn't about knowing more than AI, but about offering something AI cannot fully replicate: genuine human connection.
Use AI to learn about wine, but allow your sommelier to introduce you to something unexpected.
After all, hospitality isn't just about information. It's about the experience, the conversation, and how someone makes you feel.